


Shades of Green

by zetsubou69



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types, Thor (Movies)
Genre: Gen, ships hinted, you can read it however you want
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-09
Updated: 2019-10-09
Packaged: 2020-11-28 08:02:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,252
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20963192
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/zetsubou69/pseuds/zetsubou69
Summary: The last time they saw each other there was an excessive amount of destruction left in the wake of their meeting.This time, they get to talk.





	Shades of Green

“Hello, Bruce,” a familiar seductive voice intoned as Valkyrie pushed them with Thor into her quarters. There was sitting a chained God of Mischief, bound in an obviously uncomfortable position. Despite that, a flirty smile graced his face. Already spooked Bruce Banner did the first thing that came to his mind, he asked a question.

“Last time we saw you, you were trying to kill everyone. What are you up to these days?”

Loki’s smile dropped the instant, his face turning into a marble mask. He replied in a perfectly neutral tone that could make Natasha jealous.

“It varies from moment to moment.” 

Bruce felt as if he were under an x-ray scanner, the way Loki’s gaze targeted him. He once explained to Tony he felt like a life wire most of the time, and that was exactly how Loki made him feel right now. 

Discomfort blatant on his face, Bruce moved on to start planning their action with Thor and Valkyrie.

Time passed. Valkyrie and Thor were trying their best to come up with a solution on how to get through the biggest portal back to Asgard when Loki offered his services in exchange for a free pass off Sakar. There was something disconcerting about hearing Loki ask a safe passage through the Anus, Bruce believed.

Naturally, after a spooky story, Thor agreed. Valkyrie, however, suggested waiting, because as all guards were now looking for Hulk and the seductive Lord of Thunder, it wouldn’t do good to go out until everyone inevitably passes out drunk, a leisure activity they indulged in every evening no matter their duties or consequences.

This scheming gave the doctor the necessary time to calm down and then satisfy his curiosity. 

“So, Loki, how did you even get those codes? You’ve been on this planet for how long, two weeks?” Bruce asked Loki. 

The man dressed in blue and yellow, Grandmaster’s colours as Valkyrie mentioned, only shrugged his shoulders.

“We came to have a mutually beneficial relationship,” Loki explained. “But I suppose, that’s over now.”

Thor turned his head.

“Loki! Are you in a romantic relationship with the Grandmaster?”

Loki only rolled his eyes. Bruce almost found it funny.

“No brother. We were in a mutually beneficial relationship. I received what I asked for and he was gifted what he asked for. You see, unlike the Mad Titan, the Elder can be bargained with, if you can guess what he wants,” Loki said, looking spectacularly annoyed that he once again has to explain himself to his brother.

Bruce chose to ignore that.

“Who are the Elder?”

“Very powerful beings that have been around for longer than we know and are able to wield the energy that created this universe. To some extent,” Valkyrie rattled off. “What, did you all think that Grandmaster ended up at the top of the food chain here accidentally?”

Thor nodded after a moment, bowing his head in humility. 

“Indeed, he does seem to rely only on his Melt Stick and that woman.”

“As if you were any better with your hammer, Thor,” Loki interrupted, frankly amused at the naiveté of his brother.

Bruce chose that moment to voice his realization.

“So, you get beaten in a violent family drama, and then you immediately find yourself a sugar daddy? Wow, this place is really weird,” Bruce said in a hushed voice and collapsed on chair opposite where Loki was sitting.

“How has Loki found a saccharine father? What’s a meaning of that, Bruce?” Thor invited himself to the conversation.

Valkyrie dropped an empty bottle on a table and Bruce sighed nervously. 

“It’s an idiomatic expression used on Earth for,” Bruce hesitated for long enough to see Loki raise his eyebrows at him, “a mutually beneficial relationship. As Loki said.”

That left Thor to rumble about his need to ask Jarvis more about these idiotic expressions next time. Valkyrie used that time pack whatever she wasn’t willing to leave behind, then she moved on to make a detailed plan with Thor. 

Loki’s gaze never left Bruce the whole time, burning into him like a sunray through a magnifying glass. Intensely. Intimately. As if the discomfort of wearing trousers too tight wasn’t enough.

*

They barely managed to escape Sakaar just to arrive at the burning ruins of once glorious Asgard, a city of fables floating in space like a lost city of Atlantis, torn out from its misplaced homeland, only some roots left after the returned daughter of Odin laid waste to it. The sight of the city was breath-taking nonetheless.

Bruce could feel the Hulk under his skin, observing the world through his eyes, dissatisfied his inability to choose for himself when Bruce controlled their body. He wanted to fight and win, he wanted to play and have fun. And then came the time that Bruce so no other option than to give up and let him, just to save the women and children, to stand between them and the real undead beast. 

Vaguely Bruce remembers the appearance of other, bigger ship, and a smooth silky voice shouting and Thor calling his brother’s name. 

Then there was fire, so much fire Hulk refused to even let him see, saying it was his time to be and that Bruce should just shut up and rest his brain.

For once, Bruce listened. 

*

He came to himself on a ship. A giant ship full of people, voices, smells. A giant spaceship he did not remember boarding. But Hulk obviously did. A piece of information floated in his mind.

They were on their way to the Earth. He was going home. 

He got up and went exploring, familiarizing himself with the ship and its inhabitants first, then letting hunger drive him to find what worked for a kitchen on a spaceship. 

Asgardians and other not-exactly-humanoid aliens were everywhere and directed him towards less densely populated part of the ship where instead of Bruce found Loki.

The man in blues and yellows was sitting in on a bunk bed too short for his long body, leaning against the cold metal walls, covered in his own cape instead of a blanket, eyes closed in a pretence of sleep. He seemed so young and innocent in his rest, so unlike the feral warrior Hulk faced ages ago at Avengers toward. Bruce turned his back on him, meaning to let him have a little bit of rest. 

“What are you searching for, Bruce?” a soft voice echoed behind him. Bruce turned back to face Loki’s bright green eyes. 

“I didn’t mean to disturb your rest. I’m just looking for food and they pointed me in the direction of this part of the ship…”

Loki blinked like a sleepy cat, once, twice, thrice, then he moved his hand and a wall compartment next to where Bruce stood opened, revealing silver packages.

“Emergency rations. The taste leaves much to be desired, but even food like this is better than to starve until we reach a place where we can get everyone something else to eat. One packet is nutritious enough to chase away Thor’s hunger. I believe it should feed even you for a day,” said Loki.

Bruce thanked him, took one of the packages, tore it open, green goo staining his fingers immediately. He slurped up the contents, feeling better with every gulp. Later, clutching the empty packet he looked around until Loki pointed to the recycler chute door marked with a yellow sign.

“Is there anything else you need?”

Bruce shook his head. “No, thank you. But I have to ask, how are you? I didn’t expect to see you again after…”

“After Thor left me convulsing on the ground? I’m not that easy to kill, dear Bruce. You should know it well, after all. Your beast and I met and yet I still could walk afterwards,” he smirked.

Bruce shrunk into himself at the mention of that. It was not pleasant to him to think about leaving Loki there on Sakaar, under the shock device, but alas at that time he had no choice and when he found out it was too late. That applied also to the encounter with Hulk back at Stark tower, an event of which he learned long after it happened. He only meant to battle the Chitauri then.

“How are you doing?” he asked and leaned against a wall. “I think Hulk saw you battle with the army to keep them away from the rest. That was not an even fight.” 

Loki shrugged, then made himself relax and look laid-back.

“No battle ever worth fighting is an even fight.” 

In his wildest dreams, Bruce couldn’t have dreamt up a possibility he would find himself face to face with God of Mischief, like a binary stars orbiting the tension between them. Yet, here they were, eyeing each other cautiously. Loki, in an armour gifted to him by a mad overlord, and Bruce in Tony’s clothes, that made him pull at the uncomfortably tight trousers again.

“Is it common for men on Earth to share their clothes like that?” Loki inquired.

Bruce shook his head. 

“Not really. Unless you are very close to each other.”

A beat of hesitation.

“Asgard has a very long history of frowning upon being very close with someone of your gender unless it’s a father, brother, or a son kind of relation. I gather, such things are not considered dishonourable?”

“Well, there are still places where it’s not accepted, but advanced societies believe that you don’t pick who you love and you shouldn’t be persecuted for it either.”

“Are you very close with Stark?”

Well, no they were getting personal and Bruce’s cheeks got slightly warmer.

“Why do you ask?” 

“You wearing those clothes, despite having the option of looking for something more your size. This ship has plenty onboard.”

“Tony is … very generous and open-minded. He believes in loving people, not their… parts,” he muttered silently what was a confession, even if not outright spelt out.

Loki nodded in understanding.

“I know you personally have no witnessed much of Sakaar, but one of the reasons it was freeing and I did not consider leaving especially after I learned about the time distortion was how free you could feel there. Even your other half. Grandmaster was a benevolent ruler, to an extent.”

“That’s why you gained his favour?” he stuttered.

“He was extremely curious about what has his brother been up to in the past century. None of the newcomers but I knew his name. I consider that a very good bargain. To tell a few stories for a shelter. To sing a few songs for plentiful meals. To whisper a few secrets for fun.” He laughed.

If Loki was born in a high fantasy novel, he would make a brilliant bard. All sweet smiles and promises, all skills and no need for murder. Or so Bruce thought. 

“Why did you let Thor believe you and Grandmaster were otherwise related?” he pondered.

“Thor is so gullible. Especially since it wouldn’t be the most compromising thing he thinks I’ve done,” Loki replied.

The memory of Thor’s shocked face when he realized what did they discuss made Bruce chuckled in amusement. 

That joy did not last on either of their faces for too long. Loki went still, then slipped off his bed and went running toward the ship’s controlling centre where Thor was.

“Something’s approaching us!” he shouted at Bruce, who was right behind him.

*

The object was in a far distance, but it did not stop Loki from fumbling with controls and projecting an image of a vague outline of a spaceship onto one of the bigger screens.

“Loki, do you know whose that ship is?” Thor asked from his captain’s chair.

“The Mad Titan,” he whispered, his voice shaking. They’ve barely left the debris of what once was 

The glorious Asgard and immediately there was the next enemy at the gates. 

Bruce glanced at Loki and went still. The god who was standing next to him was shaking like a leaf in a strong wind.

“The one who courts Death? He’s thought to be but a story to scare children…” Thor argued.

Loki’s lips curled in a caricature of a smile.

“Oh Thor, he is very real. If he reaches us, dying would be salvation. We are not a ship of warriors, there are women and children, merchants and farmers and craftspeople. We have no weapons. The Arc has no chance. ”

“How do we escape then?”

Loki hesitated.

“Do you trust me, brother? Then no matter what you think you see, don’t interrupt my spell.”

Thor nodded solemnly and sounded an alarm. 

Loki clapped his hands and the world got consumed by a wave of blue fire. The horror of seeing Thanos and his ship was still present at Loki’s face as he collapsed to the ground, having transported their Ark with remaining Asgardians to Earth’s orbit, safely hiding it behind its moon. Then, after slipping the familiar blue cube back to his interdimensional pocket before Thor, who was still riding post-transportation shocks, had time to see anything but blue light, he gracelessly lost his consciousness and fell to the floor.

Bruce took a look out and saw a planet of awesome size, a sand-coloured giant whose surface was covered by what could be Van Gogh’s paintings. Jupiter, the fifth planet of their solar system. 

They’ve crossed dimensions and billions of light years in a blink of an eye.

Bruce was almost home.

**Author's Note:**

> I started this eons ago and I hoped I could add a few more chapters there, but to no avail. So here you go.  
Comment and kudos are love.


End file.
